Resolution on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Rigoberta Menchu

RESOLUTION B3-1418, 1440 and 1488/92

The European Parliament,

A. warmly welcoming the award of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize to the indigenous human rights activist from Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchu,

B. supporting the statement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee that Rigoberta Menchu stands out as a vivid symbol of peace and reconciliation across ethnic, cultural and social dividing lines in her own country, on the American continent and in the world,

C. bearing in mind that the month of October 1992 is exactly 500 years since the arrival of Columbus, which marked the starting point of the conquest of the Americas, and that Rigoberta Menchu is the coordinator of the American Continent's Five Hundred Years of Resistance campaign,

D. noting the inauguration of the lighthouse in the Dominican Republic on 12 October and distressed by the enormous financial and social costs involved in its construction,

E. mindful of its resolution of 12 March 1992 on 1992, indigenous peoples and the Quincentenary and in particular its decision to appoint rapporteurs on indigenous peoples' rights,

F. having regard to the Commission communication to Parliament on the need to protect indigenous peoples whose way of life, culture and very existence are intimately bound up with the environment; having regard also to the European Council resolution of May 1990,

G. having regard to ILO Convention 169 and the Draft Declaration on Indigenous Peoples of the UNWGIP,

H. recognizing that assimilationist policies have not only delayed the drafting of an appropriate international instrument on the rights of indigenous people but have also deeply affected indigenous communities,

I. deploring the fact that, in certain Latin-American countries, indigenous peoples still suffer displacement, massacres and the denial of their right to their lands and natural resources,

1. Congratulates Rigoberta Menchu on the Nobel Peace Prize and on her decision to use the money she has received to establish a foundation for the protection of indigenous peoples in the Americas;

2. Calls on the Twelve and the member states at the UN to respond to Rigoberta Menchu's appeal and press for substantially more money to be allocated to the Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples for the UN Year;

3. Hopes that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Rigoberta Menchu will not only represent a recognition of her efforts but also pave the way towards improving the human rights and social, economic and political conditions of indigenous peoples and towards advancing the peace process in Guatemala,

4. Welcomes the initiatives of the Commission in conducting a study of the situation of indigenous peoples in tropical forests and including an important indigenous peoples component in the tropical forest projects of DGI, RFT, COAMA, NCI and the Amazonian Demarcation Pact and recommends maximum indigenous participation in project management;

5. Calls on the Commission to set up more projects with indigenous communities, also outside tropical forest regions, on the basis of a recognition of their values, traditional knowledge and resource management practice with a view to promoting environmentally sound and sustainable development and calls on the Community automatically to include in its third generation treaties a clause on the rights of indigenous peoples;

6. Welcomes and supports the 'Charter of Rights' of the Global Alliance of the Indigenous Tribal Peoples of the Tropical Forests and the Kari-Oka Declaration and Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter;

7. Welcomes the work on the drafting of a Declaration on Indigenous Rights by the Working Group on indigenous peoples aimed at protecting and strengthening the collective rights of indigenous peoples, including the right to maintain their language, culture, religion, education, land and resources, prevent use of their lands and resources for military purposes or the dumping of toxic wastes and develop their territories according to their indigenous traditions;

8. Deplores continuing human rights violations against indigenous peoples, NGOs and lawyers who support them, as has been rigorously documented by many international NGOs;

9. Calls upon all governments of countries with indigenous people to ratify ILO Convention 169 and, in particular, welcomes its ratification by the Guatemalan Congress on 8 October;

10. Instructs its appropriate committee to investigate the possibility of contributing to the setting of standards concerning the rights of indigenous peoples at the United Nations;

11. Calls on the World Bank to establish a special fund for grants for projects developed by indigenous people;

12. Calls for a comprehensive nuclear test ban and a moratorium on British tests, following the French, Russian and American moratoria, and requests the international community and national governments to support indigenous peoples' communities that were affected by these tests;

13. Requests the Interparliamentary Delegations for North, Central and South America, and European Political Cooperation in their relations with their American counterparts, to place the issue of indigenous peoples on their agendas;

14. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, European Political Cooperation, the governments of the Member States, the World Bank, the ILO and the UNWGIP.